


The Tale of the Vampire Slayer's Daughter

by Barb Cummings (Rahirah)



Series: The Barbverse [104]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Halloween, Holidays, Original Characters - Freeform, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rahirah/pseuds/Barb%20Cummings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...she told no one where she was going, but left a note for her eldest brother, of whom she was very fond, saying that she had run away to prove herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of the Vampire Slayer's Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in the same universe as "Raising In the Sun," "Necessary Evils," and "A Parliament of Monsters." It contains spoilers for previous stories in the series. It was written (or more accurately, finished) for the Plot Without Porn ficathon.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Constance, which means 'steadfast.' Her mother was a brave warrior who traveled the land slaying monsters, and her father was a monster who had resolved for love of her mother to give up his evil ways. She had two brothers and two sisters, and although she was not a princess, her father treated her like one, which was perhaps not always the wisest of courses - but her father was better known for his great heart than his great wisdom.

Some months past her seventeenth birthday, it happened that Constance had a quarrel with her mother, for, as her mother said, she was grown very nearly to a woman, and the time had come for her to decide whether she would pursue the life of a scholar, a craftsman, or a warrior. Her mother was greatly desirous that Constance should follow the scholar's path, because it was an opportunity she had been denied herself, but Constance bore no love for study, and bitter words were spoken on both sides. At last her mother declared that they would speak of it later, for though she was better known for great bravery than great wisdom, the years had left her wise enough to know when hot hearts were better left to cool.

Constance was of no mind to speak of it then or later, so as soon as her mother was gone, she left the house in a great temper. She told no one where she was going, but left a note for her eldest brother, of whom she was very fond, saying that she had run away to prove herself.

Thus it was that Constance found herself walking by roads dark and long and lonely, all in the still cold hours of night. It was the night before All Hallows Eve, and many a demon, wight and boggle was abroad, wreaking what mischief they might before the next day's dawn sent them to their lairs - for All Hallows' Eve is a night for human wickedness alone. She had a sharpened stake of ash-wood in her hand, and a knife in her boot, and she told herself that she was not afraid, for she was a warrior and the daughter of warriors.

It happened that night that the Gnobold Queen was also walking around and about the earth, looking for whatever mischief she might find. She spied Constance walking alone, very young and no wiser than either of her parents, and to herself she said, "Ahah! Here is a silly goose to be plucked!" So she pulled her cloak of mist and cobweb tight about her, taking on the seeming of an old woman, blind and bent and lame.

Constance was growing cold and tired and thinking that perhaps a scholar's life might not be so bad after all, when she heard a voice on the wind, crying "Hi hi hi! Help, oh help! Help for a poor blind woman!" And because she had her father's heart and her mother's courage, Constance cast aside her weariness, took hold of her ash-wood stake, and ran to see what help she might give.

There in the long grass beside the road, where the irrigation ditch still ran from the days when all the town had been farmland, an old woman lay, waving her cane in the air. "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" she cried. "Help me to my feet, dear girlie, and you shall have all the reward in my power to give!"

Constance hesitated, for her parents had taught her well, and something in her misliked the unchancy way the mist squirmed around the old woman, like a centipede in the long grass. But the woman wept and cried out so piteously that it wrung Constance's heart, and she climbed down into the ditch to pull the wretched creature out.

The ditch was muddy, and it stank, and the long grass was full of cockleburrs, but after much struggle, Constance drew the old woman out of the ditch. "Ho, ho, a brave child you are," the Gnobold Queen said, smacking her lips. Her teeth were very white and sharp in the darkness - but no whiter, and no sharper, than Constance's father's teeth, and so Constance thought nothing of it. "And probably very tasty - I mean, hungry. As a reward for your service, take my hand, and I shall give you sweetmeats and pink ribbons and a magic comb for your beautiful hair."

"Thank you," said Constance, shivering (for she was now wet as well as cold), "but I had better be getting home. I'm not hungry, and I already have a comb."

"Not like this one," the Gnobold said. "This is a wishing-comb, made of moonbeam and chalcedony, with tines of amber and mother-of-pearl. It will grant you your heart's desire."

Again Constance hesitated, because her parents had cautioned her many a time that wishes were never to be trusted. But the thought of getting her heart's desire in return for the soaking of her boots was a sweet one, and though she was not a vain girl, her hair was indeed her pride, for it fell in lustrous curling waves down her back. And when the Gnobold Queen drew forth the comb from her garments, it shone in the moonlight like a great luminous pearl.

The old woman's hand, when she stretched it out, was cold as bone and strong as stone. But it was no colder than her father's hands, and no stronger than her mother's, and so Constance took it without fear.

"And now I have you!" the Gnobold Queen cried, and she plunged the sharp teeth of the comb into Constance's heart. Constance fell at once into a deep swoon, for the teeth were dipped in the Queen's heart's blood, which was deadly poison. The Queen struck the ground with the heel of her foot, once, twice, thrice. At once the ditch cracked wide open, and the Queen leaped down into the darkness, taking Constance with her.

*****

Now, Constance's brother's name was William (which means 'protector') after his father, but he called himself Bill. He was possessed of some measure of the wisdom that his sister and his parents sometimes lacked, so as soon as he discovered his sister's note, he at once called his parents and made her departure known to them. The three of them debated upon the best course, and it was decided that Bill should go after her, as his parents were at that time occupied in battling a monster who had most decidedly not reformed. Moreover, the bonds of sibling affection were strong between Bill and his sister, and in times of trouble Constance was more likely to listen to words of reason on his tongue than her parents'.

Bill therefore accoutered himself for a journey, and set out upon his sister's trail at once. By virtue of his father's blood (for he was of his father's breed, as Constance was of her mother's) his nose was as keen as a hound's, and it was a simple matter for him to track Constance's footsteps to the ditch where she had met the Gnobold Queen.

There the matter ceased to be simple, for no hint of his sister's scent could be found beyond the ditch, whereby Bill reasoned that whatever had taken his sister must have flown away, or burrowed down into the earth. At the thought of flight his heart sank within him, for he had no way to follow such a foe, but he told himself it was too soon yet to despair. The grass in the ditch was trampled, but no blood bespattered it. His sister, he reasoned further, was every bit as brave as their mother. Therefore she must have gone willingly, or been taken by trickery rather than force. He bethought himself to try calling his sister, but alas, wherever she had been taken, there was no cell phone coverage.

Bill sat him down upon the verge to consider the best course, and at length a thought came to him. He was no wizard, but he recalled a spell that a friend of his mother's had taught him as a child, to reveal ways which had been lost. So he composed himself and recited the following incantation:

Aradia, goddess of the lost,  
The path is murky.  
The woods are dense.  
Darkness pervades.  
I beseech thee,  
Bring the light.

Aradia heard this entreaty, and sent to Bill an emissary in the form of a firefly. Bearing in mind his teacher's warning that one must be of a single will in begging a boon from the gods, Bill cleared his mind as best he could, set his thoughts firmly upon Constance, and addressed the emissary thusly: "Gracious goddess, of your mercy, lead me to my sister!"

At once the emissary flew up into the air, and then straightway dove down into the long grass of the ditch. When Bill parted the stems, he discovered a great seam in the earth, and thrusting his fingers into the join, he exerted all his strength to open the hidden door. With a groan the earth parted, and Bill passed into the realm of the Gnobold Queen, the emissary of Aradia dancing before him.

*******

Constance, meanwhile, awakened in a cage of iron. Beyond the bars lay the throne room of the Gnobold Queen, a great gloomy cavern lit by torches and lamp-light, to which, as the daughter and the sister of monsters, she was well accustomed. Huge glittering gems studded the walls, and upon a granite dais stood a towering throne of bone and ebony, upon which the Queen sat and received postulants and emissaries, ministers and magistrates, both from her own people and from those inhabiting caverns far beyond. Gnobolds were everywhere, grinning with their wide froggy mouths, goggling with their yellow froggy eyes and flapping back and forth across the stony floor, which the pads of their pale froggy toes had worn quite smooth.

At once Constance tried the door of her cage, but the bars were too much for her - perhaps her father could have bent them, and of a surety her mother could have, but she was still coming into her full strength. Guarding the door to the cage was a great grim three-headed dog, collared in leather and steel and chained to the floor. Its paws were like soup plates and its ribs like barrel-staves. It looked up at her and growled, and each head had eyes bigger and teeth longer than the last.

"Aha! You are awake!" the queen shouted.

"Let me go!" Constance demanded. "I am the Vampire Slayer's daughter, and if you don't, things will not go well for you."

At this many of the Gnobolds cowered and cried out, for Constance's mother was well known to them. But the Queen was made of sterner stuff. "Pish tush," she said. "What the Vampire Slayer doesn't know can't hurt us. Besides, I'm doing her a favor, ridding her of a foolish girl like you. Still, no need for haste." She pondered for a moment, stroking her warty chin. "I have it! The Feast of All Hallows is almost upon us, and we shall have you for dinner!"

Constance was in no doubt as to what the Queen meant by this. "You honor me, your Majesty. But I have far too little meat on my bones to make a tender roast or a luscious stew. Would you send your subjects home hungry? Best to let me go instead."

"True," said the Queen. "You are far too skinny. Guards! Fetch porridge! We shall fatten her up!"

In a trice, a pair of Gnobold servants scuttled over to her cage with a dish of porridge, licking their froggy lips and rolling their froggy eyes. They thrust the dish through a slot in the cage door, and Constance took it, but though she was now very hungry, she knew better than to eat of a demon's bounty. When the guards had turned away, she poured the porridge through the bars, and set herself to thinking of a way to escape. The guards had taken her stake, but the knife in her boot was cold and sharp against her ankle - and yet no use if she could not escape the cage to wield it.

As she sat, the dog came prowling up to the bars, sniffing at the porridge, and fell upon it like the starving beast that it was. In a trice the porridge was gone, and all three heads were licking their chops. Constance held a hand up to the bars, and the right-hand head licked her fingers. "I shall call you Fang," she whispered. But the other two heads growled, and the dog slunk away again.

******

While all of these things transpired, Bill was traveling down the long, long tunnel which led to the realm of the Gnobold Queen. He was no stranger to the caverns and sewers which turned and twisted beneath the streets of his home, for sunlight was no friend to his father's kind, but he had never dwelt beneath the earth, nor had any desire to. He went swiftly and he went surely, for his eyes were as keen in the dark as his nose, but he took no joy in his journey.

Presently he came upon a wall of brambles growing across the passageway, each thorn as long as his hand and as sharp as the knives in his mother's weapons chest. The emissary of Aradia flitted into the hedge and was gone. Neither hinge nor door presented itself to Bill's eyes, nor was there any gap through which he might crawl. He had with him a knife, but upon cutting a branch, two more immediately grew up in its place, more thickly covered with thorns than the first. The roof of the tunnel was too low for leaping, and when he dug with his knife at the base of the hedge, the roots below were tangled as thickly as the branches above.

Bill sat back upon the heap of earth he had made about the roots of the hedge, and his vexation was such that he struck the trunk of the nearest thorn-bush with his fist. Straightway he cried out in pain and drew his hand back, for the thorns had torn his flesh. He made to suck the wound clean, but as he brought his hand to his lips, three bright drops of blood fall like raindrops upon the sere and thorny branch. And where the drops fell, the wood blackened and smoked, and the branch fell severed to the ground, and grew not back again.

At this Bill was dismayed, for while he was no coward, neither was he a warrior born. Yet there was nothing for it; a way now presented itself, and that way he must take. Screwing his courage to the sticking point, he thrust out his hand and raked it down the wall of thorns. Blood flows but sluggishly in the pale cold flesh of his kind, so though the barbs pierced him deep, there was no great gout of gore. Again, and yet again Bill scored his palm upon the thorns, until at last his blood bought him a narrow passage through the thicket, and he crawled through to the other side.

******

Constance did not know how long she had been in the iron cage, but it seemed a very long time indeed, long enough that she fell asleep thinking. She awakened to the guards shoving another wooden bowl brimful of porridge through the slot. Again Constance waited until they turned away. "Fang!" she called, so softly that only a dog (or a demon) might hear. "I have your breakfast!"

The dog was curled up in front of the door of the cage, and it seemed to Constance that its ribs were less bony than they had been. But the ears of its right-hand head pricked up when she called, and by means of snapping quickly roused the other two. Constance lost no time in giving it the second bowl, and when it had devoured the porridge down to the last drop, the middle head nuzzled her hand through the bars. "I shall call you Fenris," she said. But the left-hand head still growled, and the dog slunk away again.

The Gnobold Queen was growing impatient. She stumped over to Constance's cage and harumphed loudly. "You are not getting any fatter," she said.

"What do you expect, feeding me nothing but porridge?" Constance asked. "I'm sure that if you gave me a plate full of beef bones, I'd get nice and fat."

"Oh, very well!" the Queen exclaimed. "Guards! Fetch the prisoner a plate full of beef bones, and be quick about it!" She turned to Constance and shook her finger. "But be warned, fat or lean, I'll have you in the oven by sundown!"

"That's as may be," said Constance. "Beef bones, if you please!"

Shortly, therefore, the guards staggered in with a platter full of beef bones, and one by one, Constance slipped them through the bars and fed them to the three-headed dog, who crunched them up down to the last sliver. And when the last bone was gone, the left-hand head bent to lick her toes. "I shall call you Fury," said Constance. "And if you will give fealty to me from this day on, you shall have your fill of beef bones every night." And the three-headed dog bowed down on its forelegs, as dogs will, and fawned upon her.

******

All this while Bill was going as swiftly as feet could take him through the twisting maze of tunnels which surround the Hall of the Gnobold Queen. With the loss of his guide he had only his nose to trust in, but at length he came to the edge of a great chasm: one of the vast cracks in the earth which in the days of old, before his parents had closed the way, had led down to the very mouth of Hell itself. Even now a hot and sulphurous wind rose from the chasm's depths, and the stink of old magic was strong upon the rocks where he trod. More to the point, he could now catch the faintest trace of his sister's scent, and knew that this was the place to which she must have come.

Upon the other side of the chasm was a squat keep carven into the living stone, its battlements aflame with many torches, like a multitude of evil red eyes. Bill concealed himself among the rocks, and espied what he could of the keep's defense: besides the chasm itself, there was a drawbridge drawn up upon the other side, and a huge iron wheel all wound about with chains which he could see at once was meant to raise and lower the bridge. Upon each side of the bridge was a watchtower roofed in grey slate, and in each watchtower were many windows, and in each window was a Gnobold carrying a spear.

It seemed likely to Bill that if there were Gnobolds with spears within the towers, there were more within the keep. Moreover the chasm was too wide to jump. But after a moment's study he bethought him of a way to gain entrance to the keep unhindered. Assuming his monstrous face, Bill stepped out from behind the rocks and cried, "Ahoy! Lower the bridge and let me in."

The Gnobold in the highest window goggled at Bill with its big froggy eyes, and sniffed with its blobby nose. "You're nothing but a vampire!" it said. "We're proper demons, and we have nothing to do with you miserable undead halfbreeds down here. You stink of humanity. Be off!"

"Vampire I may be," Bill said, "but undead I am not. Listen! The heart within my breast beats. I am a living and proper demon, and All Hallows Eve is almost upon us. I would not be caught out in the world of men, and no proper demon may refuse shelter to his kin on this night of all nights, be they ever so distant."

The Gnobold guards conferred among themselves. Shortly the drawbridge came down with a great creaking and clanking and groaning of chains, and one of the guards came padding across, with a flap-flap-flap of its froggy feet upon the boards. It placed its pale flabby ear to Bill's breast and listened, and forthwith called out to its fellows, "The creature speaks truly! It smells of vampire, but it is a living and proper demon!"

This news caused no small degree of stir among the remaining guards, for there is little love lost among proper demons for those of Bill's kind, heartbeat or no. Yet in the end they relented. Demonkind has but few laws, and those often broken, but there are none so ancient as the asylum due their fellows on All Hallows' Eve. "Besides," said one guard to the next, "The Queen is more likely to kill a stranger within the keep than to kill one of us, when next she grows wroth." Which thought brought them great cheer, and full speedily they went to escort Bill into the presence of the Queen.

******

The Gnobold Queen was just then very wroth indeed, for she had stumped once more from her throne to the iron cage where Constance sat imprisoned. She pinched Constance's arm and poked at her ribs through the bars of the cage. "Enough!" she bellowed. "This girl is not one whit plumper today than she was yesterday, and the great feast approaches! Bring knives! Bring skewers! Bring pots and pans, cauldrons and kettles, bowls and cleavers! Stoke up the oven-fires and fetch forth the cooks!"

Upon hearing these words, Constance made ready to fight for her life as soon as the door to her cage was opened. But even as the guards advanced, the pages who stood to each side of the great brass-bound doors blew a fanfare upon their twisted rams-horn trumpets, and the Queen's herald cried out, "A visitor to the Gnobold Court begs to pay his respects to Her Majesty!"

"A visitor?" the Queen said, sniffing most suspiciously. "What manner of creature is it?"

"He smells like a vampire," the herald replied, "but he claims he is a living and proper demon."

The Queen snatched up a cleaver from the pillow whereon her nearest courtier presented it and tested its edge against her thumb. "Let him enter, then, and we'll see how tender _he_ is."

To Constance's great anxiety, it was her brother who strode into the throne room, guards upon either side. He held his head very high, and bowed very low to the Queen, saying with the greatest of courtesy, "You Majesty, my family regrets that my sister has trespassed upon your hospitality for so long. I have come to fetch her home, with my mother's compliments."

At this speech the Gnobold courtiers and the Gnobold guards and the Gnobold servants drew back, with much gnashing of their teeth and hissing, for the Vampire Slayer's compliments were a courtesy they would rather by far avoid. But the Queen held up her cleaver, and smiled with all her sharp white teeth, and said, "Nonsense! We have invited your sister to dinner, and it would be churlish not to extend the same invitation to you."

"Much as it pains me to refuse," Bill replied, as the guards began to gather round, and poke him with the points of their spears, "Our mother expects us home presently."

The Queen only showed more teeth. "I must insist upon your attendance. Guards!"

"Wait!" cried Bill. He glanced at Constance, with a small motion of his fingers such as they had been accustomed to use since they were children, signifying _Be ready._ "I challenge you! Set me a riddle, your Majesty. If I solve it, my sister and I shall both go free. If I fail, we line your cookpots tonight!"

The Queen threw back her head and laughed loud and long. "Fool! There is no greater mistress of riddle-lore than I! You will line my cookpots in any event, but very well! Entertainment before dinner is never unwelcome. Steward! Fetch me the Book of Riddles!"

While all these things proceeded, Constance was not idle. "Fang!" she whispered, so that only a dog's ears might hear. "Fenris! Fury! To me!" The three-headed dog came trotting up to the cage, presenting all six of its ears to be scratched, and Constance petted and praised it, and said, "Go you, and fetch me the keys from that guard's belt."

As the dog slunk away, the Gnobold Steward came up to the dais, carrying the Gnobolds' Great Book of Riddles. The Book of Riddles was written in blood, bound in dragon-leather, and stamped with gold, and in Gnobold lore it was well-known that a hundred and one Gnobolds had died in the jaws of Sphinxes bringing them back to the court. The Queen took up the book with great impatience, her long bony fingers skittering like spiders through the crackling parchment pages. "'All in mail, never clinking..?' 'What goes on four legs in the morning...?' Too simple, too obvious, too frivolous. Ahah! Riddle me this, my young vampire, if you can!"

And speaking these words, the Queen recited thusly:

>   
> I am the eye of Heaven  
> and yet I weep the fires of Hell  
> I see nothing, but it is through me  
> That all else is seen.  
> My lover is a white lady  
> Whose eye shines by my grace  
> Yet when she embraces me, I go blind.  
> What am I?  
> 

Constance bit her thumb, for it seemed to her unlikely that the answer was 'String, or nothing!' and that was the only riddle she could remember. Bill was far better versed in riddle-lore than she, but he appeared sore puzzled by this. He made a great show of hemmming and hawing and pondering with furrowed brow, so that all the Gnobolds made sport of him, grinning and jeering and waving their webbed hands above their heads. And all unseen, the three-headed dog crept up to the nearest guard, and with one snap of its jaws, the left-hand head bit the guard's belt in two, and the right-hand head caught the keys before they fell to the floor. In a trice it trotted back to the cage, and Constance reached through the bars and took the keys, losing no time in opening the lock upon her cage and loosing the three-headed dog from its chain.

"Your time is up!" the Queen cried, licking her lips.

Bill swallowed hard, but did not flinch. "Your Majesty, you are wise indeed. But the answer is the sun. The Sun's lover is the Moon, which shines only by its reflected light, and their embrace the eclipse."

At that the Gnobold Court set up a roar of anger and disappointment, and the Queen grew so wroth that she set the Book of Riddles upon her knee and rent it clear in twain. "That is an answer no vampire should know, living or otherwise! You shan't cheat us of our feast, you wretched little creature! Guards! Bring forth the biggest stewpot in the kitchens!" she cried, scattering pages across the dias. "Tonight we shall see what proper and living vampires taste like!"

The guards lost not time in advancing, and Constance saw at once that there was no time to be lost. "Fang! Fenris! Fury!" she shouted, pointing at the guards. "Take them!" And she drew her knife from her boot, and kicked the door of her cage wide open, and leaped between her brother and the Queen.

The battle was fierce and sudden, for the guards were expecting no resistance, and the three-headed dog made short work of them. The Queen was made of sterner stuff, and she came at Constance hammer and tongs, and Constance's knife struck once, twice, and thrice, but no blood flowed from the Queen's wounds. "Connie!" Bill shouted. "Use her comb!" And straightaway Constance snatched the comb from the Queen's hair, so that her long lanky white braids came tumbling down, and drove the tines straight into the Queen's heart.

The Queen gave a great cry and fell into a swoon as deep as Constance's had been, and all the guards and all the courtiers and all the servants immediately set up such a din and a wailing that Constance was fair to be deafened. "Here's your All Hallows' Feast!" she crowed, and tipped the Queen into the biggest stewpot just as three cooks staggered out of the kitchens, bearing it upon their backs.

"Which way out?" she asked her brother, for she had seen nothing of the path on her journey to the castle.

"Follow me," Bill told her; "If we're quick, I can lead us home by my own back trail." And then, with a nod at the three-headed dog, as it laid all of its bloody and slavering heads against her leg, "You're not bringing that thing home with you, are you? Mom will have a cow."

"Of course I am," Constance replied, for she was a girl of her word. And the three-headed dog lolled out all three of its tongues and grinned.

*****

So it was that Constance and her brother Bill defeated the Gnobold Queen, and came home to their parents safe and sound. Connie's mother did indeed have a cow, but in the end was reconciled, for she knew what it was to make a promise worth keeping. Connie's father waxed exceeding proud of Bill's tracking at Willy's Place. And the three-headed dog had his fill of beef bones every day thereafter, and was content. As for the Gnobolds, they gave no chase. Having met the Vampire Slayer's Daughter, they were in no hurry to meet the Vampire Slayer, and as the Queen was already in the stewpot, and in no condition to complain of the decision, it was the work of an instant to cook her up and serve her for the All Hallows' Feast, instead.

And it may be said that they made very merry indeed, and each and every one allowed, as they raised their goblets high, that it was the most festive All Hallows celebrated in the land of the Gnobold Queen in many, many years.

 **The End**


End file.
